Using Databases to Find Research Articles

When conducting academic research, you should try to find as much information about previous research on your topic, as possible.

One of the best places to look for articles is on the Library’s Databases tab. Databases range from general to subject-specific, can be used from off campus, and manyoffer full-text access to articles.

If your topic covers more than one subject (Social Sciences and Education, etc.) you'll want to search more than one database to get the full picture.

Visit our main Databases page, for a full list of resources available to you!

Special Education & Counseling Databases

Search All isn't always the best place to go when doing research. In fact, some our our databases actually offer more control over you searching!

The following databases are good starting points for your Special Education & Counseling research. The contents of each are different (with some overlap) so it's always a good idea to check in multiple databases to ensure that you find all relevant information.

If you topic touches on another subject, such as education, health, or gender studies, be sure to look in those databases as well (see below).

Loading ...

Scholarly v. Popular

When conducting research, you will usually be asked to find Scholarly Articles, or artices from a Scholarly Journal, rather than popular sources (like magazines and newspapers).

Not sure what the difference is between scholarly and popular? Check out this short tutorial: Scholarly v. Popular

Is It Scholarly?

How can you tell if you've found a scholarly article?

Some of our databases allow you to limit your results to Scholarly or Peer-Reviewed (possibly Refereed) articles. In some cases, this isn’t so clear. You can either check with your professor or a librarian, or you can search for the journal name in Ulrichsweb (under Articles & Databases, on the Library homepage).

Once you’ve found the name of the journal you’re looking for, look for a small referee’s shirt icon (), to the left of the title. This indicates that there is scholarly (peer-reviewed, refereed…) value to the articles in this title.